


Confessions of two (former) teenaged heroes

by aryra4



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Strong Marinette Dupain-Cheng
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:48:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24984865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aryra4/pseuds/aryra4
Summary: Jason is curious about the girl who came to his gym and absolutely kicked ass.
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Jason Todd, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd
Comments: 27
Kudos: 589





	Confessions of two (former) teenaged heroes

**Author's Note:**

> This was just an idea that has been bouncing around in my head for a while...  
> It might seem a bit fragmented because I worked on it during several days in several emotional states...

The first time Jason had seen her, he’d wondered if she’d come to there by mistake. Sure, he had spent his teenage years surrounded by women who could kick his ass, but she was tiny. Most of the people in the gym were staring at her, likely wanting to know what someone who looked like they would fall over if the wind blew too hard was doing there. At least, that was until she took off her jacket and he saw that she was ripped, she looked like a professional athlete. His eyes followed her as she made her way to the parkour course, ignoring the stares, and he watched in astonishment as she navigated it easily. The whole reason that he came to this place was because it was the only place in Gotham that could challenge him, but there she was not even breaking a sweat. For the rest of the day, he was distracted, wondering who she was and where she had learned to do that. 

-o- 

The second time he saw her probably didn’t even count, seeing as it wasn’t in person. It was a few days later when the Bats were watching the footage of a recent attempted bank robbery and there she was, completely destroying the would-be robbers. She had them disarmed and tied up in a matter of minutes, two of them bleeding from gunshot wounds inflicted upon them by their comrades as they tried to hit her. The entire team, save Cass, had sat there, completely stunned as the petite girl took down five men twice her size. Once they had snapped out of their stupor, Tim had immediately pulled up everything he could find on her. 

Marinette Dupain-Cheng, 21, born in Paris to Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng. Class president and aspiring fashion designer. She had ties to quite a few high-up people including Jagged Stone, the Rockstar, his protégé Luka Coffaine and Chloé Bourgoise, the daughter of Paris’ former mayor and a rising politician. She had taken a few self-defence classes over the years, but nothing to warrant that skill level. Digging deeper, they found out that she had been linked to Paris’ former hero, Chat Noir. Maybe he had taught her the moves to defend herself in case she was targeted by the former super villain Gabriel Agreste, who had been defeated almost four years ago. She had moved to Gotham six months ago and ran her own boutique downtown. 

While the rest of the bats argued over whether Marinette was a threat, Jason stared at the picture of her lighting up one of the screens. She looked different than when he’d seen her, her shoulders stiff and eyes haunted. At the gym, she’d looked comfortable albeit a little wary, but who wasn’t in Gotham. In the picture she had a look he saw on himself sometimes, the look of someone who had given everything and found that it was not enough. He wondered what had happened to her. 

-o-

The third time he saw her was the first time they talked. When she had come into the gym again, nobody had stared. She had proven herself to them. When she walked over to the sparring mat, Jason smirked, remembering her take-down of the would-be robbers. He hesitated only a moment before heading over to join her. 

“Wanna spar?” 

Her eyes widened in surprise before narrowing as she sized him up. “Will you go easy on me?” 

“Of course not.” 

“Ok then.” 

Her fighting style was unlike anything he had ever seen. She incorporated moves from quite a few different styles, using her flexibility to make up for her inferior strength. They fought until she managed to hit his temple, dazing him for long enough that she swept his feet out from under him. Looking at her, standing over him, sweat gleaming on her skin and smiling triumphantly, he could only think one thing, 

_He was fucked._

-o-

They built up a routine from there, coming to the gym three times a week to spar, and twice more to do their own thing. For Jason, that meant boxing, for Marinette it meant parkour and flexibility. It took Jason only two weeks to ask for her number, although he did it under the pretence of wanting to be able to tell her if he couldn’t make it. 

As if anything other than death could stop him from seeing her. 

Hell, even if he died, he would probably find a way to resurrect himself again in time for their next sparring session. 

They were very evenly matched, their spars often ending when they were too tired to carry on. She was definitely an interesting new partner, as was shown a few weeks later when she managed to land a hit on his already injured calf. He had gotten slashed by a knife there a few nights prior and it had still been healing. When Marinette saw the blood, she froze, before rushing to his side and berating him for fighting when he was injured. She wanted to patch up his wound right there, but he convinced her that he had a better first-aid kit at his apartment. On the way there, she was supporting most of his weight as he tried not to pass out. 

Once they were inside, Marinette helped him to the couch and immediately rushed to the bathroom to get his first aid kit. Luckily, she seemed to have some experience patching up injuries, a fact that might have been more worried about if he hadn’t been so distracted by her hands running gently over his leg. Marinette didn’t have soft hands, no, they were callused, with nearly as many scars as his, but he loved the feeling of them on his leg, even if he was still in some pain. 

_He really needed to get laid…_

The problem was that he just couldn’t think of anyone other than the woman tending to his wound. The woman who, not an hour before, had been kicking his ass in the sparring ring. He valued her too much to just sleep with her, but damn if the sight of her standing over him after winning a match, or lying under him after losing, didn’t make him wish they were more than just partners. 

_So much more than just partners…_

-o-

After tending his wound, she became comfortable around him and they spent more time together. Dinners, shopping and movie nights came first, until they were happy just spending time in each other’s company. Marinette spent most of her time outside of work at his place and it was not unusual for Jason to come home to her in the kitchen, making dinner. When they watched movies, she no longer sat in the armchair, covered in blankets, but preferred to sit tucked under his arm. Sometimes he would wake up the next morning with her laying on him, head buried in his chest, his arm around her waist and their legs tangled. It was moments like those that gave him hope that she might care for him in the same way he did for her.

When she started sleeping over, he had though nothing of the fact that she made sure her bedroom door was closed, but a week later, he awoke in the middle of the night by a blood-curdling scream. He had run to her room and thrown open the door, half expecting to see someone attacking her. Instead, he had been greeted by the sight of her sobbing on the bed, looking completely and utterly defeated. He had not hesitated to rush over to the bed and pull her into his arms, letting her sob into his shoulder until she fell asleep. She didn’t bring it up again and he followed her example. 

It took her a few months, but she started to open up to him a little, eventually telling him about her childhood in Paris. Of being a teenager in a city where negative could get you turned into a monster. Of a liar who turned her friends against her, telling ridiculous tales that could be disproven with a simple google search. How some of these former friends had gone as far as physically assaulting her. 

With every new thing he learned about her, he fell for her a little harder. For a woman with a cracked heart who had given and given and received only scorn in return, who had learned to guard her emotions as she grew up in a city that was under an emotional siege, who had moved to the most dangerous city in the world and thrived there. 

He knew she still held things back, but he didn’t begrudge her her secrets. He still hadn’t told her about his alter ego and she had never asked why he sometimes disappeared at nights. She hadn’t explained where she had learned to fight so well. Jason knew Marinette would find out soon, she was too clever not to, but he was in no rush to tell her, fate could decide when the time was right. 

That was why he didn’t panic when he got shot while taking down a trafficking ring and somehow ended up sprawled on the bathroom floor with his helmet in his hand, blood pooling on the tiles. He was, however, a little surprised when Marinette, upon finding him, just berated him for being too reckless and proceeded to wrap his injuries before carrying him to his room. 

When he awoke, she told him of the Parisian heroes, of a ladybug and a black cat, of two children with the weight of a city on their shoulders. Of how the discovery that his father had been the cause of the misery had broken her partner to the point where he had ended his life, leaving her alone in a war that should never have been theirs to fight. How, after finally defeating her enemy, she had taken the miracle box and fled Paris, to haunted by the memories to stay there any longer. 

He had listened to her entire story, completely in awe of her. He couldn’t believe how strong she was, to go through so much as a teenager and still come out fighting was truly an amazing feat. And when she was finished, he couldn’t say anything to express the depth of his admiration, opting to pull her into his arms and try to show her instead.

Later, he would tell her about his past, but for now they were both content to stay like that for a while

And when Chatte d’ombre joined Red Hood on patrol, nobody was brave enough to say anything.

  


**Author's Note:**

> I might add another chapter with their whole relationship if I get inspired...


End file.
